a mini finish

The finish I'm blogging about this week was actually made a few weeks ago, but I hadn't had the chance to get decent pictures. That being said, for some reason, I still cannot seem to get a decent whole shot of it. I think I need better lighting, or perhaps, some actual sunlight?

Anyways. Moving on.

The pattern is one of Camille Roskelley of Simplify's mini patterns. This one is the mini Swoon. I love it. 

I am on a "use it or lose it" kind of kick lately, so I pieced this using some of my tiny stash of Ruby by Bonnie and Camille. To accent the Ruby, I used Riley Blake's La Creme polka dots. (Seriously, what else would I use?)

This mini quilt measures about 19" square. The finished block size is about 8.5 inches, and the smallest piecing cut was 1.5 inches.

I have a confession to make. For some reason, when making this, I read the instructions about trimming the finished blocks wrong and accidentally trimmed my blocks way too much. As a result, some of my points have been cut off. <<headsmack>>

I may also have a bit of an issue with regular sized HST's (half-square triangles). I've learned that micro-sized ones seem to amplify any imperfections and drastically affect block sizes. AND, for some reason, my machine kept wanting to eat up my tiny little blocks. It could be because they were tiny little blocks.  In retrospect, I should have changed the plate on the machine so that only the needle could fit in (as opposed to the plate with a wider opening for a zig zag stitch). Perhaps it would have eased things a bit.

I may make this again, in the near future, perhaps a bit more accurately. This is a really quick finish for a little project, and it's just so darling.

I'm really loving minis at the moment, but perhaps I need to finish my big Swoon quilt before I venture any further down the path of starting new projects.

Linking up with Amanda at Crazy Mom Quilts, for Finish It Up Friday.

Changes

There is less than a week until school starts. I've been looking forward to this and dreading it at the same time. My baby girl is going to Kindergarten. She's waited for this for 3 years. It's finally (already???) here. 

   

It wasn't that long ago that she was this tiny...

 

We've had our last camping trip of the season. We spent about 5 days at Lake Pearrygin in Eastern/Northern Washington. It is just beautiful up there. And of course, I checked to see if there were any yarn or quilting shops nearby. I found "The Quilting Hive". I'm so glad I went. I found fabric I didn't think I'd ever find... "Ruby" by Bonnie and Camille. They only had 5 bolts of different types but I bought a yard of each, and on a whim, bought a couple fat eighths that looked suspiciously like they belonged (and upon research were!!) to Ruby. I was ecstatic. The lady in the shop had no idea what I was going on about. :)

I also found some Valorie Wells "Nest" fabric that I couldn't put back and some Tula Pink and a few other goodies. A fat quarter stack of "The Sweetest Thing" by Riley Blake may have landed on my hoard as well. And after hearing about Aurifil for months now, I found it in the flesh and bought a spool. I LOVE IT. It feels so durable.

On our way down to the states I picked up my package of Riley Blake's "La Crème" collection of low volume dots. I'm in love. Really. Have I ever mentioned I love polka dots? These precious prints will be appearing in many, many quilts.

This weeks goal is to finish sewing the last few stars for the Star Flower Quilt Along, to cut out my hexagons, and begin assembling the top. Can't wait to see how things shape up with the quilt.

 

Till next time,

 

Jade